iPhone - page 430

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Not sure if you managed to successfully order an iPhone 4 from AT&T after their untested pre-order system collapsed and they started randomly canceling completed pre-orders?

AT&T’s hipster mouthpiece Daniel is here to tell you how you can make sure that Ma Bell didn’t bungle your pre-order and that an iPhone 4 is actually heading out to you, despite the fact that a better spokesperson for the job would be Private Snafu. Don’t mistake him for a corporate suit, though — see, he’s wearing a vintage thrift store shirt, albeit one with stripes exactly corresponding to AT&T’s own corporate colors! But that tossled bed head mop and immaculately groomed beard don’t lie: this is a guy with Williamsburg street cred written all over him.

[via 9to5Mac]

If you’ve got an iPhone 3GS or third-gen iPod Touch and you’ve upgraded to iOS 4, you’re probably ready to give multitasking a try. Good news, then: Pandora have just updated the iPhone app to version 3.1, which now supports background audio playback under iOS 4.

Because of the same RIAA licensing nonsense that keeps Spotify out of the U.S. App Store, Pandora is only available in the United States right now, but if you’re a yank who wants to experience the same background functionality in Pandora that you get already in the default iPod app, you can download the app for free here.

iPhone 3G owners trying to upgrade to iOS 4 are reporting numerous issues with the update process, including updates that take hours and failed updates resulting in the sinister error 3002. Fortunately, though, there are ways to get around both by restoring your iPhone 3G instead of updating it.

If you are having problems with an iOS 4 update that is taking upwards of two hours to complete, the good news here is that the longest part of the update is actually backing up the existing media… a strange problem, given that you should automatically be backing up your iPhone 3G in iterative updates every time you sync. If you have a recent backup (and you should), a full restore to factory settings will eliminate the need to backup your iPhone 3G first, and should allow iTunes to update your handset to iOS 4.0 speedily.

The same is true if you’re getting error code 3002. Just click on your iPhone 3G under iTunes and click the “Restore” button. After the restore, you may have to reinstall some of your apps, but it should allow you to run iOS 4 on your iPhone 3G without any other problems or lost data.

Basically? If you’re having problems updating your iPhone or iPod Touch to iOS 4, do a “Restore” instead of an “Update.” If that doesn’t help, hit the comments, and maybe someone can help you.

The iOS 4 update is probably the most radical overhaul to Apple’s mobile operating system to date, so it was probably inevitable that it would also prove to be Apple’s most hiccup-prone update as well.

Even so, the bug complaints currently floating around the internet seem pretty severe for an Apple product and include:

• The update to iOS 4 never installs and simply reboots your device endlessly.

• Update deletes all contacts, which are not restored in backups.

• Photos that you have synced to your device with iPhoto are extremely blurry.

• Broken MMS and Push Notifications.

• Auto-lock set to one minute with no option to change it.

Those first two bugs fall under the category of “whoa nellies,” and that iPhoto bug has got to be an annoyance for people (like me) who use their devices to keep their photo albums always on hand.

Don’t get too comfortable with iOS 4… 4.1 might be just a few days around the corner if these bugs don’t iron themselves out soon.

The UltraSn0w iPhone unlocking software has been updated to support iOS 4.0.

The iPhone Dev-Team’s has updated Ultrasn0w to version 0.9.3, allowing you to unlock your iPhone running iOS4.

The update was announced on the Dev-Team’s Twitter stream. According to the release notes, it works with all basebands from 04.26.08 through 05.13.04:

iPhone DevTeam’s 3G and 3GS software unlock, now with added PwnApple. Compatible with basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04! Thanks to @sherif_hashim and @Oranav for contributing baseband crashes.

We will have an easy-to-use unlocking how-to guide coming soon.

NOTE: This post has been edited. It incorrectly said Ultrasn0w was for jailbreaking iPhones.

iOS 4 is now available for download through iTunes, adding over a hundred new features to the iPhone and iPod Touch, including multitasking. If you’ve got an iPhone 3G, 3GS or iPod Touch (second gen or above), plug your iDevice into your USB port and hit the “Update” button in iTunes now.

Busy updating? You can also now officially grab iBooks for iPhone through the App Store as well.

What do you think of the new OS? Let us know in the comments.

It was a big disappointment to many when it became apparent that the white iPhone 4 would not be available at launch, forcing many to choose between waiting to upgrade their handset or getting a different color.

According to iClarified, though, there may be one big box retailer with some white iPhone 4s on hand come June 24th: Best Buy.

According to their intel, there are between 10 to 20 white iPhone 4s ordered by each Best Buy location. It’s unclear if Best Buy will actually get these white iPhone 4s, but it appears they at least expect to receive a limited number of them.

Who knows? If you’ve got your heart set on a white iPhone 4, you might want to try your luck at Best Buy later this week.

It’s not out quite yet, and there’s no official word on exactly it will be pumped through the iTunes download chute, but just to remind everyone: iOS 4 will be available today as a free download to all eligible third-gen iDevices (the iPhone 3Gs and third-gen iPod Touch), as well as as a limited update without multitasking for the iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G.

As a further reminder, if you’ve jailbroken your iPhone or iPod Touch, you’re going to want to hold off installing the update until the Dev Team tells you it is okay, although take heart: they anticipate the relase of a fully working jailbreak for iOS 4 this month.

The clusterflug continues. If you were one of the few prospective buyers who managed to successfully order an iPhone 4 from AT&T last week before their whole untested system crashed, you may well have gotten an email from AT&T over the weekend, claiming your order had been canceled for no particular reason.

If you managed to get your order in before the colossal iPhone 4 pre-order server meltdown, be on the lookout for shipping confirmation from Apple and AT&T.

Apple started to confirm shipping notifications and FedEx tracking for the iPhone 4 yesterday, some with a June 23 deliver-by date. The official release is June 24.

Today, AT&T customers are getting some relief from iPhone 4 pre-order anxiety as shipping info and confirmation emails are being sent out.

Has your new device been confirmed as on its way yet?

Via MacRumors

The complete text of Best Buy’s launch plan for the iPhone 4 has been leaked to iClarified by an individual going by the handle of bbinsider.

The 24 page launch plan addressed to Best Buy employees includes:

• Things employees should not do during the sale.
• Details about employee purchases.
• Best Buy SKUs and pricing.
• AT&T rate and data plan requirements; Early termination fee information.
• Information about the iPhone 4 Micro SIM
• Tips on what to do with an old iPhone; Comparison between iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.
• Comparison with other vendor offerings from Sprint and Verizon
• Etc.

The  most interesting information revealed in the document, according to iClarified, is that Best Buy will be offering pre-sales on launch day for people standing in line waiting to buy an iPhone 4:

Since inventory availability is expected to be minimal, stores may open up a limited time pre-sale window as an option for customers on launch day who have not previously pre-purchased.
– Pre-sales may only occur up to 11:00 am local time
– Customers who pre-purchase on launch day will be added to the store’s pre-sale cue based on time of pre-sale and will get their pre-sale fulfilled in priority order
– Do not provide customers who pre-purchase on launch day timing on when a device may be available

You can read the entire document and grab the rest of the plans highlights yourself here.

Perhaps the best iPhone 4 Promo video Apple would never want you to see.

“It’s probably safe to say we invented a new metal.”

[via iPhoneSavior]

I like my apps to be simple and clean and I think that you would agree that is what Apple likes to see in apps designed for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Echofon Pro from Naanstudio is a universal app which makes it compatible with all of Apple’s iOS based devices. All of these attributes made Ecohfon Pro a great Twitter app for my iPhone, but the recently released iPad compatible version really put the icing on the cake.

Police in Sussex want to test an app that would let gun owners start the renewal process using their iPhones.

Part of a £3 million cost-cutting campaign, anyone who wanted to renew shotgun and firearm licenses would start via iPhone, then be visited in person by officers.

Not everyone thinks the streamlining is a good thing.
”We’ve got to be extra careful giving gun licenses,” Lyn Costello, of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (MAMAA), said. ”We have this attitude that gun murders don’t happen very often so its OK to be lax, but it is not OK and we’ve got to do everything in our power to stop it happening again.”

Next time you leave your iPhone behind in a bar, there’s a free app from Apple that could help you find it.

The Find My iPhone app is now available for download on iTunes but requires a MobileMe account subscription.

It works like this: install the app on your “home base” (someone else’s iPhone, or an iPad, iPod Touch) and in the event that you lose your iPhone or it gets swiped, login to the app via MobileMe.

Dan Frommer reports for Business Insider that AT&T is making some interesting decisions in regards to customer data plans. This recent decision will probably stir the pot with customers already irate over recent iPhone data plan changes and affects customers that buy AT&T’s new 3G MicroCell product. We don’t think that the report might be fair after speaking to AT&T.

We know that there are already over 600,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4, but according to Boy Genius Report’s sources, that number doesn’t include iPhone 4’s that have been reserved for pick-up… and if a quick look at numbers from five Apple stores is anything to go by, that 600,000 figure might end up doubled on launch day.

• A “large” New York Apple store had over 2,200 iPhone reservations

• A “medium” sized Boston Apple store had over 800 reservations

• One store in California had over 1,000 reservations, and another in California had over 1,400

• A “small” Texas Apple store had over 900.

With AT&T’s own pre-order system experiencing a meltdown earlier this week, a lot of would-be pre-orderers went for the pick-up option instead. Expect lines at Apple Stores on the 24th to be even more bonkers than usual for a new iPhone launch.

MobileMe went down for some ‘scheduled maintenance’ last night, and when it came back up it included a whole host of new features. As well as the Mail web application now out of beta, Apple’s list of improvements includes:

• Widescreen and compact views.
• Rules to keep your email organized everywhere.
• Single-click archiving.
• Formatting toolbar.
• Faster performance.
• Increased security with SSL.
• Support for external email addresses.
• Improved junk mail filtering.

In addition to the new features, Apple has updated the login page (above) and introduced a fancy new application switcher (below) that provides a nice new way to navigate between the MobileMe web applications.

Apple have also released a Find My iPhone app that now provides you with quick and easy access to the Find My iPhone service from each one of your iOS devices. All of the web application features are included like sending a message to your device or playing a sound, locking the device and even wiping your data remotely.

Apple has been busy releasing a few of their own iOS applications this week, and as well as Find My iPhone, we’ve also seen iTunes Connect Mobile which gives application developers the ability to monitor their app’s success in the App Store from their iPhone, and the Apple Store application allowing customers to make purchases from their iPhones and schedule reservations at an Apple Retail Store.

If you know (or care) anything about how computers work, you understand that RAM is one of the most important technical specifications by which a device’s overall performance capabilities may be judged. Simply put, more RAM generally equates to more performance, all other things being equal.

The original iPhone and the iPhone 3G each came equipped with 128MB RAM and if you’ve had the opportunity to use one of those devices alongside an iPhone 3G S (which added still camera zoom and video, among other things) or an iPad, you have seen the performance difference between 128MB RAM and 256MB. It’s why Steve Jobs went on about how blazingly fast the iPad is when he introduced it.

It’s only logical that with the dawn of multitasking in the latest iteration of iOS and with on-the-fly video editing via iMovie as well as video calling coming to iPhone 4, the latest hardware needs and is getting a RAM upgrade.

Which is yet another good reason explaining those 600,000 iPhone 4 pre-orders. And perhaps even a good reason for waiting on the next iteration of the iPad.

[via Macrumors]

The only thing that Apple didn’t actually update with the iPhone 4 was the storage, raising the question of whether or not the iPod Touch will get a storage bump come September.

Theoretically, Toshiba’s currently available flash storage modules could give us a 128GB iPod Touch this year… but next year, we could possibly see that number double again to a shocking 256GB, thanks to Toshiba’s latest announcement: they have just announced the first-ever 128GB embedded flash memory chip manufactured with a 32nm process to start shipping this autumn.

Stacking sixteen 8GB NAND layers, the new design is just 0.06″ thick and seems ready made for iDevices. Since Apple employs one NAND flash module in the iPhone 4 and two 32GB NAND flash modules in the 64GB iPod Touch, that means next year, the iPhone 4 could conceivably leap to 128GB of storage to the iPod Touch’s 256GB.

Image via Mactropolis

In certain corners of the Internet, it has become received wisdom that the iPhone will appear on Verizon any time now. Timelines are speculated upon. AT&T’s rampant incompetence is cited. And then Apple announces another must-have product that only works on AT&T’s network in the U.S.

So, in case you’re wondering, the iPhone 4 isn’t coming to Verizon in September. It’s not going to T-Mobile (in spite of what some misinformed analysts think, it’s still not 3G-compatible) or Sprint, either.

This is understandably frustrating, as every U.S. iPhone user has, at one time or another, experienced complete AT&T meltdown — full bars but no connectivity, battery life dropping at more than a percentage per minute, and dropped calls every few steps. But the sad fact is, AT&T was and is the only credible partner for Apple to work with on the iPhone and the iPad. And the reason for that has very little to do with the United States and everything to do with the rest of the world. They’re stuck together until everyone goes 4G.

Most of us are familiar with the annoyance of a pair of earbuds squirting out of our ear canals. The best earbuds either use rubber tips to anchor your headphones in place or, better yet, are specifically molded to fit your ears, but even those solutions can be uncomfortable for long listening sessions.

UrbanEars have a different solution with their latest Medi buds: they use an “earclick” solution which secures them in your ears by applying pressure at the catilaginous antiragus and inferior crux. The end result? Even though you can hardly feel them, they stay in your ear.

Each pair of Medis comes with four variably sized swappable pads to guarantee a close fit, and each bud boasts a 15.4mm driver, an inline remote and microphone compatible with the iPhone and a fabric, tangle-free code. They are available now for just $50 in twelve different colors.

[via Gadget Lab]

No one’s disputing that the unprecedented demand for the iPhone 4 would have tested the limits of even the most thoroughly tested and fail-proof preorder system…. but even giving AT&T the most generous benefit of that doubt, yesterday was an utter debacle for them in almost every way: not only did their pre-order system fail in almost every way imaginable, but in the process, they yet again exposed their customers’ private data.

When iPhone 4 pre-orders went live yesterday, a huge volume of customers discovered it was virtually impossible to order one online directly from AT&T, with many realizing the best way to get an iPhone 4 was to order it for in-store pick-up at an Apple store.

According to a source speaking PC World, the demand put on AT&T’s servers had less to do with the sheer volume of demand than the fact that AT&T didn’t even test their ordering system before the launch.

Perhaps that failure to test the system thoroughly explains AT&T’s other major SNAFU yesterday: dozens of AT&T customers reported that logging into pre-order the iPhone 4 would often log them into other people’s accounts, exposing these users’ personal details, including credit card information and personal address.

Apple announced 600,000 pre-orders for iPhone 4 on Tuesday, a number “far higher” than the company anticipated.

In a short press release, the company said the unexpectedly-high demand caused many system malfunctions and apologized for any difficulties and frustration.

Yesterday Apple and its carrier partners took pre-orders for more than 600,000 of Apple’s new iPhone 4. It was the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions. Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration. We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again or visit an Apple or carrier store once the iPhone 4 is in stock.

Earlier, AT&T said it had received 10-times the number of iPhone pre-orders than last year’s iPhone 3GS, and is suspending pre-orders.

“Given this unprecedented demand and our current expectations for our iPhone 4 inventory levels when the device is available June 24, we’re suspending preordering today in order to fulfill the orders we’ve already received,” AT&T spokesman Mark Siegal told the New York Times. “The availability of additional inventory will determine if we can resume taking preorders.”

Radio Shack has also suspended pre-orders, it said on Twitter.

SAI: AT&T: iPhone 4 Pre-Orders 10 TIMES Higher Than First Day Last Year

With the snap of an iPhone camera, one police department is identifying suspects on the go.

Using an app called MORIS (Mobile Offender Recognition and Identification System), the police department in Brockton, Massachusetts is matching photos of suspects with a database in development by statewide sheriff’s departments.

Sean Mullin, president and CEO of BI2 Technologies of Plymouth who developed the app, explained that the app allows officers to identify suspects through facial recognition, iris biometrics and fingerprints – all on one device.